Friday, April 30, 2010

I drove out to Ohio last weekend for my nephew's birthday and had a couple moments where I wondered what I was supposed to be doing since I was not sewing. It was a strange couple of days not having my machine and current project with me.

Because I am working on another gift I cannot post photos for another two weeks (but the photo above shows e fabric I am using). Two weeks! It doesn't seem nearly long enough although I am almost done with the top. My goal this weekend is to get the entire top sewn. It is a whole cloth quilt with lots of applique. Lots and lots. And plenty of thread sketching. Tons! It's pretty daunting. I have these grand ideas when it comes to quilting and sometimes they don't work but so far *fingers crossed* this is coming out just about how I envisioned.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

I whipped up this quilt for my husband's cousin and fiance (now, wife). I knew I had to find some nature-oriented fabric because they both enjoy hiking and being outside. The big question would be color. And then I saw photos of the interior of their home and knew I wouldn't be stuck using earth tones entirely. If I had my way everything would be bright and eye-blindingly cheerful!

The fabric came from Hawthorne Threads because it's the first place I go for printed fabric. Some of the fabric is from Joel Dewberry's Ginseng line, Studio E's Nature-ology line (the pretty blue birdies!) and Carolyn Gavin's Wild Thyme line. The colors reminded me of the wall color in the photos and were cheerful without making me go blind. And they weren't all browns and greens.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

My hometown has this really great fabric shop called AnnaLouisa's Needle Arts. I went there a year or so ago with my mom and bought a whole lotta batiks and learned a great technique for applique. I'm trying to teach myself new techniques so I finally got around to testing this one out.

First up... used fabric softener sheets! The very nice woman who was cutting my fabric (whose name I believe is Chris) said this is the trick to nicely turned edges without having to turn them as you sew the fabric piece onto the larger area.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

I finally finished the gift quilt I'd been spending all my time on over the last ten days (no photos until after I mail it out) and realized my sewing machine had more fluff in it than it should for being 5 months old. I'd cleaned and maintained it once already but when you see chunks of fluff appearing each time you sew, it's probably a sign that you need to do another cleaning.

Sending my machine off for cleaning is not an option. I mean, it is an option but one I do not choose. I prefer to do the maintenance myself which saves time and money. I'm sure I am doing things wrong but I never had any problems after keeping up the cleaning on my old machine so I was certain I could do it for my new machine also. It's a different beast inside what with the computer guts but unless I mess with the feed dogs it is much easier to take apart and put back together.

My Etsy Shop

That random bio stuffs...

I am female, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, childfree, a pacifist, an environmentalist, a believer in the goodness of others, an atheist and an American who believes in the right to question those in authority and expect them to make intelligent decisions for my country. None of these things make me un-American or unpatriotic.